Joe Bruno becomes a little emotional as he walks through a crowd of media from the Federal Courthouse after his sentencing Thursday. (Tom Killips/The Record) 5/6/2010

ALBANY -- Former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno was indicted on two charges of theft of honest services Thursday, which includes allegations of bribes and kickbacks from an Albany businessman in return for favors from state government.

Bruno's attorneys, E. Stewart Jones and William Dreyer, are all but calling this a case of double jeopardy since the indictment is worded almost identically to the two honest services mail fraud charges that Bruno, now 83, was convicted of by a jury in Dec. 2009. Since then, the U.S. Supreme Court re-defined theft of honest services to include only incidents of bribery and/or kickbacks, allegations the federal government did not bring during Bruno's first trial.

A date for his new trial has been scheduled. He was released on his own recognizance.

The indictment said Bruno served in the state Senate representing the 43rd District from 1976 until 2008, when he announced his retirement. For the last dozen years of his tenure, he served as majority leader, which the document described made Bruno "one of the three most powerful government officials in New York State."

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The 13-page document went on to describe that the state of New York and its citizens have an intangible right to honest services from elected officials, including Bruno, who allegedly deprived "the state of New York and its citizens of the intangible right to his honest services through bribery, kickbacks, and the concealment of bribery and kickbacks, thereby exploiting his official position for personal compensation and enrichment by soliciting and accepting payments from Jared E. Abbruzzese..."

Abbruzzese, the indictment says, was an individual associated with Communication Technology Advisors LLC, Capital & Technology Advisors LLC, Motient Corporation, TerreStar Networks, and Bazaguma LLC. These companies and Abbruzzese would sometimes pursue interests that required official action by state officials. This included interests in a nanotechnology company, Evident Technolgies, based in Troy, and the thoroughbred racing franchise held by the New York Racing Association.

Bruno allegedly schemed to defraud his district and the state from about February 2004 until December 2006. He is accused of knowing he was not entitled to the payments that amounted to a total of about $440,000 and that he knew the payments would be in return for official acts and his influence on other officials.

Abbruzzese purportedly paid Bruno $20,000 per month for work as a consultant. Bruno also allegedly was paid 20, $10,000 checks for further consulting with the other companies involved. The consulting fees were paid to Bruno's Capital Business Consultants entity, a company he ran out of his Brunswick home.

"This is a gross miscarriage of justice," said Dreyer outside the courthouse, noting that the investigation against his client began 6 1/2 years ago and most of the evidence is several years old. The two attorneys also brought up the decision from the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals that "failure to disclose" is not a crime under federal law.

"Thus, Joe Bruno was convicted of nothing," Dreyer and Jones said in a statement.

Bruno, who was normally very eager to talk to the press and held near-daily press conferences professing his innocence and criticizing the government during his first trial, was advised to stay mum after Thursday's arraignment.

The two counts have a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail. Other penalties include a $250,000 fine for each of the counts and three years of supervised release which, if violated, could be extended by two years.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Coombe and William Pericak are the prosecutors of record.

Along with the consulting payments, Bruno also allegedly accepted $80,000 in payments for a virtually worthless horse, which was in return for a debt owed and Abbruzzese's interest in a horse partnership. He was convicted of the same charge in the first trial though it was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court and not seriously challenged by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The indictment says the first count includes mailings that facilitated this fraud from March 2004 through November 2004 and the second count is for dealings in November 2005 between Bazaguma and Mountain View Farm.

"Mr. Bruno intends to vigorously defend himself against these scurrilous allegations," according to a statement given after the arraignment. "However, he is disheartened that our system of justice would allow this piecemeal prosecution to be renewed after the government was told by the U.S. Supreme Court that there was no case in the first place."

A press release from the U.S. Attorneys said the Supreme Court decision of the United States vs. Skilling criminalizes only fraudulent schemes involving bribes or kickbacks. Dreyer and Jones said the indictment is almost identical to the original case except that the words "bribes" and "kickbacks" have been added.